TraqFreq provides insights into your playing habits and enables you to set playing limits to encourage healthy playing habits in order to help reduce the risk of injuries or recover from injuries. For instance:

• Rest regularly while playing - rest 5 minutes after 45 minutes of playing, or take frequent short pauses during a session.
• Limit your total playing time for the day, depending on your fitness level.
• Limit your increase in weekly playing time - between 10% and 20% per week.

Set the limits and TraqFreq reports on your progress towards these healthy goals. In addition, TraqFreq computes a playing 'Fitness' and provides an analysis of playing data to reveal health insights and suggestions.

The purpose is about seeing repeated patterns of excess and to warn you to think about playing patterns and take the necessary actions.

Quick start

The goal for the week is to play enough to get into the Fitness Zone but not go beyond the Week Limit, while taking the necessary rest each day in doing so (as indicated by the Rest Today icon )

Remaining Time is the amount of playing time remaining to reach the Week Limit. The Week Limit is based on your playing history as it progresses.

Playing in the Fitness Zone increases fitness - as does going beyond it, but at the risk of exceeding your physical capability with the increased possibility of injury.

Definitions

• Week Target
  The target for this week is to play at least the same amount as last week but to limit an increase to no more than 10%-20% (configurable).
• Week Limit
  A value of 10%-20% more than the Week Target, depending on the fitness level.
• Day Target
  The Week Target spread evenly over the days in the week.
• Day Limit
  A day limit can be set as a fixed duration or as a percentage of the Day Target. This is shown in the Day Limit chart.
• Session Limit
  Limit the length of sessions and rest at the end. e.g. rest for 5 minutes AFTER no longer than 45 minutes of playing. Pauses during the session are not considered in this analysis, only the overall session length and the rest at the end. This is shown in the Session Limit chart.
• Strain
  More pauses during a session results in lower strain. Accumulate rest as short frequent pauses without limiting the length of sessions. e.g. accumulate about 5 minutes of pauses DURING every 45 minutes of playing, without limiting the length of the session. Thus pauses during the session are also considered in this analysis. This is shown in the Strain chart.
• Rest Today
  The Rest Today indicator will be displayed in orange if you were not within your rest limits for today - Session Limit, Day Limit and Strain.
• Recent Rest
  Looking back over the last week, the indicator will show the relationship between the days that were within your rest limits and the days that were not within your limits. A larger percentage of orange indicates less rest during the most recent days.
• Fitness
  You get fitter when you play regularly and more each week. If you play significantly more in a week then you don't necessarily get fitter to play consistently at that level. When you play more than the Week Target, your fitness level and next weeks' target increases but only to within limits.
  Similarly, if you stop playing, your fitness does not immediately drop to zero - fitness and the weekly target gradually decreases over time.

The Health Dashboard

The Health dashboard comprises 7 sections which are described below.

1. Health Overview

The Health Overview section contains key health indicators:

• Target this week
  A healthy target could be to play at least the same amount as last week but to limit the increase in your playing time by 10-20% per week. For instance, if you regularly play 5 hours a week, then based on the past weeks, this week your playing time should not increase to more than 6 hours. When you go beyond the 5 hour mark, the Week Target, you are in the Fitness Zone which is where you improve your fitness. If you play 6 hours this week, then you have reached the Week Limit, a 20% increase for the week. Target this week is the remaining playing time needed to reach the Week Target.
• Target today
  Target today is the Target this week spread evenly over the remaining days of the week. It is also constrained to be smaller than the Day Limit.
• The Progress Bar
  The progress bar (a sound wave) has two zones. The end of the first zone is the Week Target and the end of the second zone is the Week Limit. The purple area is the Fitness Zone. The goal is to play enough to get into the Fitness Zone but not go beyond the Week Limit. Also shown is the amount played this week so far and the remaining amount until you reach the Week Limit.
• Rest Today
  The Rest Today indicator will be displayed in orange if you were not within your rest limits for today. The rest limits include Session Limit, Day Limit and Strain.
• Recent Rest
  Ranks the last 7 days of Rest. Looking back over the last week, the indicator will show the relationship between the days that were within your rest limits and the days that were not within your limits. A larger percentage of orange indicates less rest during the most recent days.

2. Health Analysis

Based on playing patterns, an analysis is performed and the key insights and suggestions are presented in the Analysis section. Some of the insights that can be shown are:

• Fitness Target Counter
  The total number of weeks you reached the Week Target.
• Week Target
  The amount of playing time needed to get into the Fitness Zone and improve your fitness.
• Week Limit
  How much your playing time has exceeded the Week Limit.
• Day Limit
  How much your playing time has exceeded the Day Limit.
• Rest
  When you played too long in a session without taking the necessary rest.
• Excess Inactivity
  If you have not played in the last 3 weeks (configurable), the analysis suggests to ease back into playing gradually over the next week.

3. Fitness Level

Traqfreq introduces the concept of Playing Fitness - a score that represents how much time you can play in a week, which is the same value as the Week target. Based on the score, a categorization is shown, namely, Low, Medium, High and Peak.

4. Weekly target and Fitness

• Playing fitness is similar to sport fitness - you get fitter when you play regularly and slowly increase over time. There is a limit to how much fitter you can get each week - if you play significantly more in a week then you don't necessarily get fitter to play consistently at that level. When the bars are purple or orange (reached the Week Target or played beyond the Week Limit), your fitness level increases but only to within limits, and so the Week Target also slowly increases within limits. The weekly target and playing time for the week are shown in the chart.
• Similarly, if you stop playing, your fitness does not immediately drop to zero - there is a gradual loss in fitness over time. And so the Week Target also slowly decreases. In the chart above, notice this gradual loss on the far right where the teal playing time bars are well below the Week Target.

5. Effort

Session Limit

• Set a limit for the longest session after which a rest is required. For example, you prefer to take your rest as one 10 minute break after playing no longer than 45 minutes. Thus, there is a strict limit on the session length, followed by a rest, and without considering the pauses during the session.
• The chart shows the longest session of the day and if and by how much you exceeded the limit.
• Use the Session setting to configure these limits.

Day Limit

• Set a limit for the total amount of playing in a day. The Day limit can be set as a fixed duration or as a percentage of the Day target. The fitter you are, the more you can play in a day. The Day target can be derived by dividing the Week target by 7. You can set the Day limit by indicating how much over the Day target is acceptable for just one day. For instance, if your Week target is 7 hours, then the Day target is 1 hour, and you consider it acceptable to play up to 2 hours for just one day, that is, 200% of the Day target. Alternatively, you can also set a fixed duration as the Day limit.
• The chart shows the total time played in a day, and the Day limit.
• Use the Day Limit setting to configure this limit, which can be a percentage of the Day target or a fixed duration.

6. Strain

Strain considers the short pauses taken during a session, and computes an average rest for the session. Lower average rest during a session results in a higher strain value. For example, you prefer to take your rest as short pauses (1-2 minutes) every few minutes during a session and accumulate at least a total of 5 minutes of pauses during a session of 45 minutes. Instead of limiting the session length to 45 minutes, you consider it acceptable to play well beyond a 45 minute session as long as there is at least an average of 5 minutes of accumulated pauses during every length of play of 45 minutes.

The chart shows a score of the most tiring session of the day (the session with the lowest average rest). This score is based on the rest accumulated during the session, and using the Strain setting.

Use the Strain setting to configure the rest needed during each length of play in a session.

Strain vs Session Limit

Suppose session limit and strain are configured the same, e.g. rest 5 minutes after playing 45 minutes, and accumulate 5 minutes during every 45 minutes respectively. If you played for 45 minutes and then rested for 5 minutes without taking any short pauses during playing, the bar chart for both session limit and strain would be at their alert lines. But if you also paused a few times during the 45 minutes, then the strain chart will be below the strain alert line and the session limit chart will remain at the session limit alert line.

If you played for 90 minutes and accumulated 10 minutes of pauses during playing, the strain chart will be at the strain alert line, while the session limit chart will show 45 minutes above the session alert line. Strain computes the average rest during the session and the strain limit line is at the average rest value of 5 minutes.

7. Rest Today and Recent Rest

If you are not within your rest and playing limits for today, then the Rest Today indicator in the Overview section is shown in orange.

The Recent Rest indicator is derived from the Rest Today indicator over the last week. If during the last week, some of the days had an orange Rest Today indicator, the Recent Rest indicator will show the relationship between the days that were within your rest limits and the days that were not within your limits. A larger percentage of orange indicates less rest during the most recent days. The most recent days are weighted more heavily than older days in the week.

8. The Rest Calendar

The color of each rectangle in the calendar represents the value of the each chart for that day, namely, the Strain chart, Session limit chart and Day Limit chart:

• Teal - you were within the limit for that day.
• Gray - no playing was detected.
• Orange - you were not within the limit for that day.

9. Settings

Configure the various health limits by using the menu at the top of the Health Dashboard, or from the general settings page. Each of these settings have been discussed in their relevant sections in this tutorial.